Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Two shallow plastic sweater boxes with lids or mealworm breeding boxes available at pet stores
- Window screen material
- Razor knife
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Substrate made of wheat, oats, bran, whole wheat flour corn meal or chicken mash
- Mealworms
- Potatoes
- Variety of fruits, vegetables and bread
Preparing the Containers
Step1
Cut out most of the top section of the lids from both shallow sweater boxes.
Step2
Trim the window screen to slightly larger than the cut out areas of the lids.
Step3
Glue the screening snugly over the openings you cut into the lids making sure the screening fits securely. This provides ventilation for the mealworm colony and protection from ants and other insects. It also keeps the mealworms inside their container.
Step4
Place one container in a warm, dry area with subdued light.
Step5
Use the second container to house your mealworm colony while you clean the culture box container that you're using for mealworm breeding.
Step6
Add 1 to 2 inches of the substrate material into the box as a bedding and food source for the mealworms. Wheat, oats, bran, whole wheat flour, corn meal or chicken mash all make excellent substrate materials. Mix the substrate materials together, or use them individually.
Caring for the Mealworms
Step1
Put your mealworms into the substrate material. If possible, purchase a full culture of mealworms from a pet store or online at websites such asSialis, Worm Man or Nature Pavillion. See link in Resources. A full culture includes mealworms all four stages: egg, larvae, pupa and beetle. You can start with either mealworms or beetles if a full culture is not available.
Step2
Cut a potato into thin slices and place them into the substrate as a source of food. Alternatively, use a wedge of cabbage in place of the potato.
Step3
Sift out the beetles every one to two weeks, separating them from the eggs and tiny worms utilizing the second container that you prepared.
Step4
Dispose of the waste material in a garden once a month. Wash and dry the container, fill it with new substrate and sliced vegetables, and return the worms to the freshened container.
Step5
Keep your adult beetles at a humidity level of about 90 percent.
Step6
Feed the adult beetles small pieces of fruit, vegetables and bread. The breeding cycle keeps repeating itself as you repeat the steps.